Sunday, 7 October 2012

All the tourists have gone and the town is settling back into familiar ways again.

Obviously the weather is just right for a good crop of wild cepes.

Only proper shoppers here instead of browsers and watchers, as in the high summer.This year, the walnuts have been badly affected by the heat,so no chance of collecting from windfalls in a friends garden.Our hazelnuts have also been affected,mainly by the indigenous red squirrel, but we don't mind him/her having them.Pictures from the studio tomorrow, hopefully.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

I'm back in the studio again after a week of teaching in hot,humid weather.Using the felt machine adds to the humidity but some lovely work was done in spite of the heat.Now, I'm trying to anticipate my need for felt over the winter months, as the machine certainly wont be going back to the UK with us!

This piece is made up of various naturally dyed fabrics, felted to pre felt ,then heavily stitched.It will have a border eventually, made in combinations of recycled and dyed fabrics-more stitching during the winter,I expect.

This one is a large wrap made from various recycled animal prints.I'm considering putting some of these on my Etsy shop, but time is a bit short at present,as I'm also doing a version of an Alabama Chanin skirt and working on a possible piece for the new felt exhibition organised by the German Felt group.
We have night visitors on our verandah-maybe dormice, maybe a squirrel we're not sure,so sleep isn't so good.Hate to put down traps, especially as it is a red squirrel and the dormice are lovely, but desperation may set in soon.

Friday, 24 August 2012

I've just seen a really interesting exhibition in the tourist office in Issegeac(just over the border from us in the Dordogne.The combination of traditional weaving techniques with far from trad materials is really inspiring and in some of the work, an African influence seems very strong.Certainly worth the visit and made me think.

The work looked really right in the space,though this image is a bit marred by the heater !

Loved this one.We have lichen growing like weeds on our trees, proof positive that our air is really pure.

Not sure about the feathers ,as I have a bit of a bird phobia, but on the whole,an impressive collection of work.

Saturday, 11 August 2012

The weather has really become summery with a vengeance-weather station recorded 38 in the shade yesterday.I'm needing 2 fans working in the studio, so the felt machine is a boon because it really takes the hard work out of making large pieces.Busy preparing for my course coming up in Sept,re assembling notes/samples etc and trying to fit in printing sessions between, whilst hiding from the heat-yes it really is that hot.

This is a piece for the Dying of the sun exhibition in Perth.Only needs mounting now.

My son makes bespoke campers-could I get him to make one for me like this lovely ice cream van? www.bespokecampers.co.uk

Wouldn't it make a wonderful mobile studio?

Finally,some inspiration for another lino cut and look at the blue sky!

Friday, 27 July 2012

Haven't had time to blog because we have had our daughter out here and have been catching up with family life.There has been some time to felt, but not to talk about it!

This is one of my pieces for an upcoming exhibition,silk shibori dyed and felted on the machine.

It can be worn in several ways and I think it may be spoken for!
Looks good at the back too

We have very hot weather at the moment-42 degrees according to our weather station,in the shade,so I'm working slowly on a lace shawl, using cut out techniques that I used for last year's exhibition in Denmark.Watch this space.

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Finally found the energy to make something which isn't thrown straight in the bin, though there are still failures, or rather ,learning experiences which really count as such.No pictures of finished items yet, but they are on the way! Meanwhile, this is the busy rolling machine area-it really helps with experiments because it is so much quicker and if a project is less than perfect, I feel that not so much time is 'wasted'